This world no longer has Dennis Lee Brannman to kick around!

My father-in-law passed away on April 20, 2019, and I just can’t stop thinking about him.  He had Alzheimer’s Disease so he wasn’t himself for the past six or so years.  Those first years, were not bad, as it seemed like he was a tad slow on the uptake.

The very first time I ever spoke with him, I was standing in Yuma, Arizona, and he was on the phone in Helena, Montana.  My late sister-in-law and her then husband had eloped so I had this big plan to make sure we got married and I was going to ask his permission to marry his youngest daughter.  Of course, it was a bigger moment in my head and I had it originally planned completely different.

That summer, it must have been 2007, my future wife was going to spend the summer in Helena and I was originally planned to come up with her and drive back with her. I used Greyhound to come back and to go up there by myself.  Secretly, I also had the plan to propose to her on her birthday.  Dennis was supposed to be Helena at that time, and I was going to meet him and tell him my intentions.  Instead, he had to work longer in Miles City so he didn’t come home until the week after I left.

But I had already planned this silly speech in my head and I also needed to make sure her mother was okay with me staying there during that week.  I was still calling her Mrs. Brannman at this stage, which I would continue to do so until like a year ago.  Now I just don’t address her by name or I call her Leslie and I feel awkward about it.  Anyway, that’s my own dumb hangup about the formality of titles.

I knew he was home but I wasn’t prepared to have that chat with him that day so I waited another day while I knew Kristie was going to be working at Power Townsend so I knew she wouldn’t answer the house line.  I called and Dennis answered and I had to super awkwardly introduce himself and quickly spurted out that I would like to marry his daughter and I was getting his permission to do so.

He was nice enough to say that he wasn’t sure how she felt and it would be up to her but if I wanted to, I could ask her.  Which made me think that maybe asking for one’s daughter’s hand was only a thing in old movies or television series but with that encouragement, I booked tickets to fly to Helena.

We never got a chance to talk about that exchange nor have I really ever heard anyone talk about it so maybe he just hung up the phone and went on with his day and I briefly told the story to Kristie but that was that.

We eventually met and I’m a pretty different guy than he was.  Him being a good ol’ Montana man, served in the Navy, was still working on boilers, he hunted and was super Catholic.  I was slowly becoming Catholic and only ever really worked in office environments besides a few summer gigs painting houses.  I fractured my right elbow in high school so military service was not an option, though I would have liked to have served at least one tour in the Army, to follow in my mother’s boots.

Dennis and I got along pretty well, I mostly let him talk and try to tell some jokes.  It was a polite relationship and I’m sure he was thrilled with both son-in-laws that he was given and neither of us were much like him.

.  .  .

The other memory I cherish was the first time we really hung out on our own.  He had some errands to run and invited me to tag along.  I dove at the opportunity to try to impress him with my wit.  I’m sure the invite was supposed to be a kind gesture that I was supposed to turn down but that’s what happens when you a take a chance on inviting someone.  At this time, he was resorting to writing down notes for himself, which was clearly the Alzheimer’s slowly coming on so that taints the memory in hindsight.  But I was there, he told me the plan, and then we went out to run the errands.  So he’ll say something like “well, that’s that, let’s go home” and then I would have to remind him we had two more stops to make, he’ll thank me, and then we headed to the next place.  Then we’ll repeat that conversation and I’ll tell him we had one more stop.  Good times and he would retell the story and I was pretty useful that day.

.  .  .

He was a staunch Republican, and got me to join the Knights of Columbus.  Kristie was still pregnant at the time and I only really attended two meetings.  Then Walker Dennis came along and I just got busy and never really went back to the Knights.  We gave Walker her father’s first name as his middle name.  As soon as she told me that’s what she wanted, I was all for it.

On that morning of his death, Walker Dennis woke up at 2:30am and asked to sleep with Kristie.  We were there to bury her grandmother, and there was a chance Dennis wasn’t going to hold out for our return.  We sincerely hoped he would make it a few more days but with Alzheimer’s, one never knows and it is such a horrible disease that the person is like a shell of who they used to be.  So at least he’s in heaven as a complete person again.  So Walker woke up, we switched beds.  and then thirty minutes later, Kristie’s sister Dawn called.  If Walker hadn’t woken up, Kristie probably would have either missed the call or would have been still waking up to hear the news.  Instead, she was pretty alert and prepared.  We like to think that was Dennis’ way of saying goodbye to his namesake.

Walker and him got along pretty well.  Even those last months, Dennis would instinctively call him Curtis, so he at least remembered his middle grandson, which was always nice to hear him make a connection.

You will be missed Dennis!  Thank you for continuing to be a great example of being a loving father and supportive husband.  I can only hope to continue in your footsteps.

Dennis L. Brannman, age 72, of Helena

https://helenair.com/news/local/obituaries/notices/anderson-stevenson-wilke-funeral-home-notices-for-wednesday-april/article_ecac6c17-9449-5851-b17d-e91d81dae73b.html

https://www.alz.org/montana

.  .  .

Just to lighten the mood, here is some bonus content.

https://www.comixology.com/free-comics

Marvel is offering three free comics this week :

Ms. Marvel (2015 – 2019) # 1
Shang-Chi : Master of Kung Fu (2009) # 1
Marvel 1602 # 1

I’m not sure what these three have in common at all but I’ve at least read 1602.  As I type this, I supposed I could actually read these comics and then give a quick sentence review but maybe next time.  1602 was pretty fun, it probably shouldn’t have been promoted as heavily as it was for what the story turned out to be but it is a fun re-imagining of the original Marvel characters worked into the Elizabethan era.

.  .  .

I have also earned my 17th Platinum with Polygonal Wolf’s Drowning.

The PlayStation Store was having an Easter sale and I had the thought to myself that whenever there is a sale, and I have the funds, I should just treat myself to the cheapest game and that’s how I came across Drowning.  I gave it a lot of thought.

I checked the trophy guide :

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/forum/drowning/333161-drowning-trophy-guide-road-map.html

It seemed more confusing than straightforward but the game sounded interesting.

I saw WarisacryGameClips’ review :

 and I realized I’m doing a lot of work to decide if I was willing to spend two dollars on a relatively short game.

So purchased it and looked forward to playing it once we were back from Hawthorne, Nevada.

Once I got home, I checked rus199410’s platinum run of the game :

Thanks to both of those YouTubers for hosting such great videos.

I couldn’t believe it was that easy of a platinum and it made the guide make sense too.  I had a pretty fun time with the game. I understood what “low-poly environment” meant only after experiencing the game.  It looks much better on the PS4 than in videos.

The game has some fun collectibles (like five of them) and some silly trophy things like attempting to walk off a bridge a several times.  Once I saw in the second video that there was a trophy for merely starting a new game, I was both excited but also wondering if this would be a shameful platinum or even game on my game list but I really had a good time with the game.

The game is about depression, just to finally come out to say it, and now that I’m writing this, realizing I’m not ending on the high fun note I thought I was going to.  The story seems very personal but at the same time, pretty vague.  There is an alternate ending with people around a campfire that I’m pretty sure I understand but I wouldn’t have minded getting more information about.

The game looks great, tells an interesting story, and you’ll be completely done with it in an hour.  Which felt good to play and beat a game, not in just one sitting, but to successfully complete a game.  That was a reward all to itself.

Drowning is typically $2.99 so I only saved a dollar.  There is also an avatar for only a dollar, but I didn’t purchase it.

This was also my first “walking simulator” game and I enjoyed it so I should look into other walking sims to play.

https://www.slant.co/topics/12314/~walking-simulator-games-on-ps4

Slant’s list includes SOMA and Witness, which I’ve played, and Life is Strange and its prequel, which I own.  I should move that game up my list and I should finish SOMA.  Witness, I really should commit more than 30 minutes to playing.  Detroit : Become Human doesn’t seem like that would fit but I’ll give that a playthrough once I finish Beyond : Two Souls.  Heavy Rain is also featured on the list.  Those games seem more like TellTale story games along with Until Dawn, and I wouldn’t consider those games strictly walking sims like how I believe the next list of games are mostly like.

Firewatch, Journey, Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Abzu, What Remains of Edith Finch, Dear Esther,  are all on my wishlist already with Ethan Carter being the most recent addition.

I hadn’t heard of Night in the Woods before, nor Layers of Fear, The Observer, Ether One, or Perception.  It makes sense that walking sims and horror games would work together.

.  .  .

The Bridge was also on sale and I didn’t even remember it being a free PS Plus game back in October 2018.  It was a pretty interesting game.  I’m only on the third chapter but after needing three YouTube videos for three of the puzzles, I was concern I was just going to watch the videos and burn through the game and that felt cheap so I’m putting the game on the backburner for now.

Thanks to EliteMonkeyGaming for hosting the videos, the short run time made me realized how silly it was to watch a video but I was legit stuck on them.

II – IV, The Pillars

II – V, The Mausoleum

II – V, The Memorial

Watching this videos, reminded me that I also needed help with I – VI, The Nook.

So I ended up needing help with four puzzles which didn’t bode well for me for Chapters 3 and 4 and what I can tell from the trophy list, the Mirror versions of those four chapters.

I’ll come back to this one of these days, probably during the next sale and I see that I have the option to redownload it again.

.  .  .

I’m currently making my way through Lego Movie’s first game.  I just have four of the five manuals in Broadcast News and three of the five in Bricksburg Under Attack, and then I’ll have all of the golden manuals!  From there, I’ll let Walker Dennis build the Golden Instruction Builds, he’s already made three of the 15, then once he’s done, we will earn both the Midas Touch trophy, the Everything is Awesome 100% completion trophy, and finally, The Piece of Resistance, the platinum trophy!  Feels good to be at least days away from earning it, or whenever he wants to complete it, I suppose.  I can patiently wait and it gives him something to do in the game.

What I really want is to buy the Lego Marvel Collection now on Amazon for $40, down from $60!  I wished I knew how long this sale is going to last.  I imagine it is on sale because of Avengers : Endgame but I know the game is $40 so I can wait until it is at least $40 again.

I haven’t seen the above Lego Spider-Man Far From Home set, which is what I’ve been holding onto my $40 for but it has been burning in my pocket for a few days now.  I can’t seem to find a reliable source that states when it is on sale.  The game is out July 5th and Amazon says it will be available on April 30, which is a Tuesday and I can see that being accurate.  Before, I’ve seen April 26, Friday, as an option, which I can see that being a possibility too, but I can wait a few more days to see what happens on the 30th.

Which reminds me, I still need to get a ten dollar PlayStation card so I can get back up over $20.

After I get myself set up for the Lego Movie plat, I’m fully committing to Batman : The Enemy Within and from there, I have some deciding to do.